'Hungry' Huskies talk tough

UW primed to break into Elite Eight

As the Washington basketball team stands on the aptly named exit ramp, holding up a pleading sign, the answer in the NCAA Tournament is usually no.

Teams such as Dayton, Connecticut and Louisville always speed past, refusing to make eye contact and staring straight ahead.

Since the NCAAs went to an expanded format, finally settling on 65 teams, the UW has failed to advance to the quarterfinals each of the three times it has made a mini-run through the bracket.

Counting all tourney appearances, the Huskies are 0-for-4 while attempting to capture three consecutive postseason games -- reaching the 1953 Final Four with a Bob Houbregs-led team when just two regional victories were required to get there, only to get whacked by Kansas 79-53 in the semifinals.

People wanted to believe last year was the year for a UW breakthrough, but Louisville's Cardinals killed off all of the Huskies' momentum and Final Four fantasies involving Nate Robinson with a decisive 93-79 decision.

This time Washington is in Washington, again leaving its followers convinced something magical is about to happen, largely because of a 67-64 upset victory over Illinois last weekend.

If nothing else, the 26-6 and fifth-seeded Huskies are talking tougher than usual as they prepare to meet the 29-3 and No. 1 Connecticut Huskies Friday at the MCI Center in the nation's capital.

"Lets collide and get it over with," UW senior swingman Bobby Jones said. "We've had our list of streaks to break and been checking them off. This is our improvised list. Everybody knows what it takes. We're playing the team expected to win the national championship. Either you bring it or you don't."

Said senior teammate Jamaal Williams resolutely, "We've done great things for this program and here's a chance to check off another thing we haven't done. We'll be ready to play."

Twenty-two years ago, the sixth-seeded Huskies had Seattle all atwitter when they won as expected over No. 11 Nevada-Reno 64-54 and then upset Atlantic Coast Conference headliner Duke 80-78, eliminating the West Region's No. 3 entry -- in Pullman of all places.

The round of eight looked like a sure thing for the UW that year. The Huskies were 24-6, paired up against an unimposing, undersized 20-10 Dayton club, meeting the 10th seed at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles.

They played badly, and still almost won. Yet it went down as a near miss for a team built around a pair of Germans, 6-foot-9 Detlef Schrempf and 7-footer Christian Welp.

"I thought this was how the season was supposed to end, making it to the tournament," said Welp, then a freshman. "Little did I know that you had to work hard for it. I probably would have treated it with more respect to get to the final eight.

"I was new to it. I thought it was going to happen every year, and it didn't."

Welp appeared in two more NCAA tourneys, but a UW basketball team didn't get another shot at reaching the quarterfinals for 14 years.

In 1998, the 11th-seeded Huskies were in the East Region and upset No. 6 Xavier 69-68 in their opener before bumping off No. 14 Richmond 81-66 in the second round to get people talking.

That brought a 20-9 team built around 7-footer Todd MacCulloch face to face with 31-4 and second-seeded UConn, and it nearly pulled off a miracle. Instead, the Huskies got beat when Richard Hamilton grabbed a rebound and dropped in a 12-foot shot falling down at the buzzer, making 75-74 winners out of the other guys.

"We definitely had the attitude we could beat them; if we hadn't, we would have got blown out," MacCulloch recalled. "A lot of our fans thought we could have beaten that team. One more rebound, and we would have."

Twelve months ago, the top-seeded Huskies were 29-5, thinking they could do anything with their ultraquick lineup and school-record-tying amount of victories. They needed more muscle against 31-4 and fourth-seeded Louisville, and had nowhere to turn for it. They went down hard, losing to the Cardinals 93-79.

"Last year, with a No. 1 seed, we might have gotten a little relaxed," UW senior Brandon Roy said. "Now everybody's hungry. I think we have more fight."

MacCulloch returned to the NCAA Tournament the year after the heartbreaking loss, hoping for a second shot at the quarterfinals, but the UW never came close, getting upset in the opening round by Miami of Ohio 59-58.

Eight years after his flirtation with uncharted territory, the once nimble and high-percentage-shooting center is optimistic that these Huskies can hold their own against intimidating UConn.

"They probably have a better chance than we did, because this is their second trip back," MacCulloch said. "I think they want to get beyond the Sweet Sixteen and really establish this program.